Chapter 59.4- Gamer of the Desert

They ended up taking seats along a long table, a seat reserved for Kabuto at the table’s head, something that caused no small amount of grumbling.. The fact that the man had been the one to call them in but still wasn’t present made it clear that he wanted to arrive last as some sort of powerplay. How pitiful. Gaara noted his seat, with the Mizukage on his right, and the Raikage next to her. He was as far away from Kabuto as the tables allowed, and he smiled at the fact. Clearly the man was wise enough to know that having a fuinjutsu master in close proximity would be stupid. He sat opposite the Head of the Land of Iron, who had Tsunade next to her, and then Kurotsuchi was the last one to round off that end of the table.

He took his hat off his head as he noticed the others had down and placed it down on the table right in front of him. In a blur of movement, Kabuto occupied the seat at the head of the table, and by his side were two men. Two familiar men. Madara Uchiha was to be expected, but Nagato Uzumaki was not. He stared down the room with a blank gaze. The kind of blank gaze that showed that he had his will thoroughly suppressed by the edo tensei. The fact that Madara was much the same made something clear. Any attempts to kill Kabuto would not be tolerated. Without him, we’d have to deal with Edo Madara, and Edo Nagato, and who knows what else. Edo Obito was already confirmed as was Deidara. It was simply too dangerous. In a second, he’d made it clear beyond doubts that he had us all in check.

“Good to see we’re all here. Now we can begin.” He said, placing his own hat down on the table. The fact that the hat was a plain white with no sigil in much the same way his robes were was a statement of some sort. I was not nearly hopeful enough to believe that it was a statement of surrender. If only the Gods could have made us so lucky.

“First of all, a question. How?” I asked, interrupting whatever he had planned. It was a valid question, and the curiosity was burning.

“How what, Kazekage-dono?”

“First of all, how did you get Nagato reanimated? I destroyed that body with my own two hands when I killed him” I started.

“That was easy. He left enough dna in his partner’s body and I had an easy enough time splicing his own genetic material from the foetus” There were audible gasps around the room at that. Tsunade looked disgusted, Orochimaru intrigued, and Jiriaya took a step forward before his partner placed a hand on his shoulder. Mifune looked like he had heard nothing as he just closed his eyes and the other Kage looked suitably sickened.

“You’re a monster” Kurotsuchi said.

“I know. I agree with you. I am a monster. A monster without equal. I have done terrible things. I have stared into the abyss for so long that it became a mirror. I have journeyed to the pure lands to pluck souls from the Shinigami’s grasp and place them under my will, I have improved upon the Second Hokage’s jutsu to the extreme level, I am a god amongst men. And it was all for one goal. Peace.”

“Peace?”

“You call this peace?”

“Is it not? Tell me, Tsuchikage-dono, would you all have come to the same table without my threats? Kazekage-dono, tell me- would you have ever stopped until the world raised your banner? Would your shinobi? No. I know the nature of this world. It was to kill, steal, and pillage, until nothing remains. We shinobi would have done that for eternity.”

“And you can solve this?” Darui looked doubtful.

“I can. I can change you. That is why you’re here.”

“All this yapping sickens me. Lay down your terms boy and we will decide whether to kill you or not” Tsunade’s threat was matched by her placing her hand on the desk and squeezing. The mighty wood creaked in her grasp as the men behind her joined her in staring down Kabuto. Well, this got interesting quickly.

“Oh I doubt you’d succeed with that. I give these two men behind me good odds in a fight with all of you, and trust me when I say I have a lot more where that came from.”

“Your terms, Kabuto”

“I prefer Ichikage, Kazekage-dono. But I do get your point. The terms are simple. All five of you will submit. Here and now. You will pledge your villages to a new federation. An empire so to speak. I will be the head of the Empire, and I will rule from Amegakure as the One Shadow.”

“What do we gain out of this?”

“Peace and prosperity. The Akatsuki had funds aplenty, and so do I. I will invest in each and every one of your villages. I have the best seal masters from Uzushiogakure under my aegis, I will have all your villages brought into a bright future powered by sealing scripts that put what you have to shame. Imagine being able to communicate across millions of miles in seconds. Imagine being able to travel from Kumo to Suna in less than a day with high speed rail lines. All this and more, I offer.”

“At the low low cost of our way of life” I cut in.

“Don’t pretend like you were all that attached too the shinobi way of life, Kazekage-dono” He riposted, and I took the point with a shrug.

“What d’you get out of this, uhn?” Darui asked.

“I get to achieve my dream of bringing peace to this world. And after I invest in all your villages and get everyone up and running at maximum efficiency, I’ll expect a Return on Investment. Let’s say a 10% profit kickback annually”

A/N; Kind of struggling with the dialogue in this. Trying to make sure everyone doesn’t sound the same. Fuck Character Microphone.